Navigation of Hudson's Bay and Strait. 267 



mountains another, according to the force and direction of the winds 

 acting with or contrary to the tides ; but until the general breaking 

 up of such ice, which occurs about the 25th of June, it will not find 

 its way to the ocean or be disconnected from the general mass. 

 But from the 25th to the end of June (and in many cases earlier), 

 all shore and river ice on the northern Labrador, and along both 

 sides of the Strait, as well as on the coasts of the Bay, breaks up 

 and starts in a general movement for the ocean. During this move- 

 ment, which continues in the Strait and adjacent waters from the 

 25th of June until the 15th of July, local ice is liable to be met 

 with anywhere in the Strait; and, so far as local ice is concerned, I 

 am confident that in Hudson Strait there is more obstruction to 

 navigation during the twenty days just named than during any 

 other like period of the whole year. And yet, during this period, a 

 steam vessel will penetrate it without much difficulty. 



Such I believe to be the possibilities of the navigation of 

 Hudson Strait — a volume of water connecting the great North 

 American Inter-Ocean with the Atlantic — that is destined to become 

 a commercial highway far outstripping the fog-bound Strait of Belle 

 Isle, and surpassed only by the widely-famed English Channel. 

 Indeed, Capt. Sopp of the Neptune was one day heard to remark 

 in the presence of the members of the Expedition : " I would sooner 

 navigate Hudson Strait than the English Channel." 



fe^ 



